Gary Sanchez homered and drove in four runs and Jose Miranda and Gio Urshela each had three hits as the Minnesota Twins snapped a five-game losing streak with an 8-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday night in Minneapolis.
Luis Arraez added two hits to raise his batting average to .313 and scored two runs for the Twins (74-78) who finished with 11 hits. It was just the second win in the last 10 games for Minnesota.
Griffin Jax (7-3), who pitched a hitless inning of relief after starter Joe Ryan departed after throwing just 69 pitches, picked up the victory. Ryan, who saw his fastball velocity dip by about four mph as the game went on, allowed three runs on four hits over four innings. He walked three and struck out five.
Shohei Ohtani had a two-run single, Mike Trout had a double and two RBIs and Livan Soto and Luis Rengifo each had two hits for Los Angeles (66-86). Reid Detmers (6-6) suffered the loss, allowing five runs (four earned) on eight hits over four-plus innings.
Minnesota, which had just a combined seven hits over its previous two games, had three hits while jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Miranda led off with a single and went to second one out later on a single by Arraez. Urshela then lined a ground rule double over the head of Trout in center field to drive in Miranda. Sanchez followed with a sacrifice fly to drive in Arraez.
The Twins extended their lead to 3-0 in the second when Jermaine Palacios reached base on a fielding error by Detmers, advanced to third on a single by Miranda and scored on a single by Carlos Correa.
Los Angeles rallied to tie it, 3-3, in the third on an RBI double by Trout followed by Ohtani’s two-run single.
Minnesota regained the lead, 4-3, in the fourth when Cave led off with a triple to right-center and scored on a sacrifice fly by Palacios.
Sanchez extended the lead to 7-3 in the fifth with his 15th homer of the season, a 432-foot drive deep into the second deck in left-center, driving in Arraez and Urshela who had both singled.
The Twins added an insurance run in the seventh when Urshela led off with a single, advanced to third on a throwing error by Matt Duffy on Sanchez’s double-play grounder and scored on a sacrifice fly by Gilberto Celestino.
The Angels loaded the bases with one out in the ninth against reliever Jhoan Duran. But Duran then got Trout to fly out to right for a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 8-4 and then got Ohtani to ground out to end the game.
–Field Level Media
